Transient heat transfer in a heat‐generating fin with radiation and convection with temperature‐dependent heat transfer coefficient

The transient heat transfer in a heat‐generating fin with simultaneous surface convection and radiation is studied numerically for a step change in base temperature. The convection heat transfer coefficient is assumed to be a power law function of the local temperature difference between the fin and its surrounding fluid. The values of the power exponent n are chosen to include simulation of natural convection (laminar and turbulent) and nucleate boiling among other convective heat transfer modes. The fin is assumed to have uniform internal heat generation. The transient response of the fin depends on the convection‐conduction parameter, radiation‐conduction parameter, heat generation parameter, power exponent, and the dimensionless sink temperature. The instantaneous heat transfer characteristics such as the base heat transfer, surface heat loss, and energy stored are reported for a range of values of these parameters. When the internal heat generation exceeds a threshold the fin acts as a heat sink instead of a heat source. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.21012     

Distribution of the heat transfer coefficient in convection reflow oven

Nowadays reflow ovens apply forced convection heating with nozzle-matrix blower system which generates numerous heater gas streams. In these types of ovens the heat transfer coefficients of the gas streams determine mainly the efficiency of heating. In this paper a measurement method is discussed which can determine the heat transfer coefficient distribution under the nozzle-matrix of a convection reflow oven. During the experiments, temperature changes have been measured and the heat transfer coefficient has been calculated using the heat equation of the investigated reflow oven. In the first step, the heat transfer coefficient of the heater gas streams has been studied under the nozzle-matrix in function of height. In the second step, the heating efficiency of the nozzle-lines has been compared and the distribution of the heat transfer coefficient has been calculated. The results are confirmed by a theoretical model. It is also presented that how the contamination of the nozzles affects the heating efficiency of the reflow oven. This measuring method can be useful for monitoring the operation of the reflow oven, soldering failure prediction and measuring input parameters of thermal modeling.     

Superficial heat transfer by forced convection and radiation in a horizontal channel

This paper presents a numerical investigation of turbulent forced convective flow in a horizontal channel. An exchanger isothermal test plate is embedded in the lower wall, in the fully developed region of the flow close to the exit of the channel. Above this isothermal plate, on the upper surface, a black coated isothermally heating resistance facing downwards is installed. This absorbing surface provides a controlled radiative heat flux on the lower test plate. In this study, custom-built tangential gradient fluxmeters (TGFM) are used to provide local measurements of convective heat transfer so as to validate the numerical predictions. Then, parametric studies are carried out. The profiles for the heat flux are presented for different Reynolds numbers in the flow direction along the cold isothermal lower plate. Then, the influence of the presence of an obstacle, located on the lower surface, on the heat flux is also investigated. All numerical predictions are carried out with Fluent, previously calibrated against benchmark problems and experimental measurements. In the paper, special emphasis is given in the systematic comparison between experimental and numerical results.     

Robust methodology for determination of heat transfer coefficient distribution in convection

To predict the microstructures, residual stresses and distortions in the heat treated metal components, it is important to accurately know the heat transfer coefficients (HTCs) between the hot work piece and cooling media. In this paper, a new method is presented to accurately determine the node-based HTC distribution by coupling computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with optimal weight functions and scale factors. With this new method, the predicted temperature profile of the work piece during quenching (rapid cooling) is in excellent agreement with experimental measurements. This new method can be also applied to accurately predict convection heat transfer in thermal equipment such as heat exchangers and refrigerators, building thermal design and other heat transfer related situations.     

Study of combined effect of natural convection and radiation heat transfer from annular finned vertical cylinder

The present numerical study reports the combined effect of natural convection and radiation heat from a vertical cylinder with annular fins. The study involves simulation for laminar as well as turbulent regimes. For the present study, Rayleigh's number is varied in the range ${10}^8-{10}^{12}$, emissivity in the range $0.2-0.8$, and the fin spacing ratio (s/d) in the range $0.1-10$. The radiation heat transfer has been found to share a considerable amount in the total heat transfer of the system for the laminar regime, but in the turbulent regime, its effect is minimal and can be neglected. When the fin spacing ratio is reduced, the total heat transfer increases for both the turbulent and laminar flow conditions. But the radiation heat increases with a reduction in fin spacing ratio for laminar and in case of turbulent flow radiation heat rate reduces with a reduction in s/d ratio. For the range of Rayleigh numbers considered in the present study, the Nusselt number increases with the increment of the fin spacing ratio. Thus, it can be concluded that there is a remarkable enhancement in the heat transfer rate in laminar cases with the fins. For turbulent cases, the fin efficiency lies between 40% and 50%.     

Combined heat transfer of radiation and natural convection in a square cavity containing participating gases

This article deals with analyzing the effect of radiative heat transfer on natural convection heat transfer in a square cavity under normal room conditions. The governing equations of natural convection and radiative transfer are solved simultaneously to obtain the temperature, velocity and heat flux distributions inside the participating medium. The finite volume method has been adopted to solve the governing equations and the discrete ordinates method (DOM) is used to model the radiative transfer in absorbing-emitting media. The radiative–convective model is validated by comparison with test cases solutions from the literature. Then, the effects of Rayleigh number from 10² to 10⁶ and optical thickness in a broad range from 0 to 100 on temperature and velocity distributions and Nusselt numbers are investigated. The results show that even under normal room conditions with a low temperature difference, the radiation plays a significant role on temperature distribution and flow pattern in the cavity. Also, several interesting effects of radiation are observed such as a sweep behavior on the isotherms, streamlines and velocity distributions of the cavity along the optical thickness and a reverse behavior on maximum stream function and convective Nusselt number at different Rayleigh numbers.     

The effect of a magnetic field on free convection heat transfer

Free convection heat transfer due to the simultaneous action of buoyancy and induced magnetic forces is investigated. The analysis is carried out for laminar boundary-layer flow about an isothermal vertical plate. It is found that the free convection heat transfer to liquid metals may be significantly affected by the presence of a magnetic field; but that very small effects are experienced by other fluids.     

Experimental estimation of the transient free convection heat transfer coefficient on a vertical flat plate in air

Transient heat convection on a vertical plate has been interpreted both theoretically and experimentally, in terms of a variable heat transfer coefficient, by several authors. Few results concern the case were air is the fluid. Joule heating of a very thin vertical graphite foil has been tested experimentally here. Two different methods of inversion have been studied for estimating the local or global transfer coefficient, starting from infrared camera measurements. The second method has been able to provide the convective contribution to the measured global transfer coefficient. Experimental results with different levels of heating show that the early transfer coefficient decrease proportionally (in time t) to t⁻¹, and not to t^−1/2 as the early times conduction theory would anticipate. Other effects than those already presented in the literature remain to be investigated, in order to explain the discrepancy of this theory for air.Relaxation experiments show that enhancement of the wall/air exchange by a mastering of the transient heating of the whole wall seems to be quite difficult to obtain     

Combined radiation and convection heat transfer in a porous channel bounded by isothermal parallel plates

Combined radiation and convection heat transfer in a porous medium confined between gray isothermal parallel plates is investigated. The medium is absorbing, emitting and scattering. Cases of boundaries at temperatures higher or lower than the medium are considered. In the porous medium, the boundary effect on the fully developed laminar velocity field as proposed by Kaviany is accounted for. For various values of the extinction coefficient, the scattering albedo, the conduction-radiation parameter and the boundary emissivity, Nusselt number, temperature and heat flux distributions are found for the range of values including the extreme limits of the porous medium shape parameter (PMSP), γ=(W²φ/K)^1/2, where W is the channel width, φ the porosity and K the permeability. For the lower limiting value of the PMSP γ, the effect of the porous medium is negligible and the situation approaches that of Poiseuille flow. For this limiting case, results from the present work are compared with those available in the literature. For medium to high values of the PMSP γ, for the purpose of comparison, some results are presented in tabular form. Radiation is found to have a significant effect on various parameters studied. The discrete transfer method was used for the solution of the radiative part of the energy equation. An iterative finite difference scheme was used to solve the energy equation.     

Combined mixed convection and radiation heat transfer in rectangular ducts rotating about a parallel axis

The study of combined heat transfer of convection and radiation in rectangular ducts rotating in a parallel mode was investigated numerically in detail. The coupled momentum and energy equations are solved by the DuFort–Frankel numerical scheme to examine the interactions of convection with radiation. The integro-differential radiative transfer equation is solved by the discrete ordinates method. Results are presented over a wide range of the governing parameters. The present results reveal that the rotational effect in a square duct is more significant than that in a rectangular one. The predictions also demonstrate that the radiation presents significant effects on the axial distributions of the total Nusselt number, Nu_t, and tends to reduce the centrifugal-buoyancy effects. The effect of rotation on the Nu_t is restricted in the entrance region, however, the radiation affects the heat transfer through out the channel. Additionally, the Nu_t increases with the decrease in the conduction-to-radiation parameter N_C.     

Numerical and experimental analysis of convection heat transfer in passive solar heating room with greenhouse and heat storage

In this paper, heat transfer and air flow in passive solar heating room with greenhouse and heat storage are studied. Thermal insulation of solar heating room has significant effects on temperature distribution and airflow in the heating chamber of this solar system. Heat transfer and air flow in a rock bed, which is used as solar absorber and storage layer, are also studied. If porosity is kept within certain range, increasing the rock size causes an increase of the capability of thermal storage and heating effects; increasing the porosity of thermal storage materials results in an increase of the bed temperature but a decrease of the rock mass. The specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity have a remarkable effect on the average temperature of rock bed. All these factors should be taken into account when designing a solar heating system.     

Investigation of mixed convection heat transfer in a horizontal channel with discrete heat sources at the top and at the bottom

Mixed convection heat transfer from arrays of discrete heat sources inside a horizontal channel has been investigated experimentally. Each of the lower and upper surfaces of the channel was equipped with 8 × 4 flush mounted heat sources subjected to uniform heat flux. Sidewalls, lower and upper walls are insulated and adiabatic. The experimental parametric study was made for aspect ratios of AR = 2, 4 and 10, at various Reynolds and Grashof numbers. From the experimental measurements, row-average surface temperature and Nusselt number distributions of the discrete heat sources were obtained and effects of Reynolds and Grashof numbers on these numbers were investigated. From these results, the buoyancy affected secondary flow and the onset of instability have been discussed. Results show that top and bottom heater surface temperatures increase with increasing Grashof number. The top heater average-surface temperatures for AR = 2 are greater than those of bottom ones. For high values of Grashof numbers where natural convection is the dominant heat transfer regime (Gr¹/Re² ≫ 1), temperatures of top heaters can have much greater values. The variation of the row-average Nusselt numbers for the aspect ratio of AR = 4, show that with the increase in the buoyancy affected secondary flow and the onset of instability, values of Nusselt number level off and even rise as a result of heat transfer enhancement especially for low Reynolds numbers.     

Forced convection on grey cast iron plate-fins: Prediction of the heat transfer coefficient

The main goal of the present work is to evaluate the convective heat transfer coefficient at the surface of grey cast iron plate-fins. A hybrid numerical/experimental approach was adopted, i.e., temperature was measured at selected points at the fin surface and an inverse problem technique based on optimization was used to obtain the heat transfer coefficients. The direct heat transfer problem was solved numerically using the finite volume method, whilst the optimization problem was resolved based on particle swarm optimization (PSO). Firstly, the temperature dependence is investigated by comparing uniform, linear and parabolic equations for the heat transfer coefficient. The hybrid approach was validated through an energy balance applied to the finned surface. The parametric study was performed by assessing the influence of the fin spacing and flow velocity on the convective heat transfer coefficient: the results indicate that the convective coefficient is enhanced with increasing Reynolds number and fin spacing. Finally, the experimental results for the Nusselt number in the parametric study were condensed into a single new empirical correlation with good accuracy.     

Natural convection and radiation heat transfer in a vertical porous layer with a hexagonal honeycomb core (Part 2: heat transfer experiment)

Combined natural convection and radiation heat transfer characteristics in a vertical porous layer with a hexagonal honeycomb core were investigated experimentally. The temperature distributions on the honeycomb core wall and the combined heat transfer rates through the porous layer were measured. The measurements of the heat transfer were accomplished using the guarded hot plate method. The honeycomb core wall was made of paper and large-mesh foamed resins were inserted into the honeycomb enclosures. The measurements were performed by varying the radiation parameters between 0.5 and 0.65, varying the temperature ratios between 0.01 and 0.1, and varying the Darcy-Rayleigh numbers between 5 and 80, and for a fixed aspect ratio H/L = 1. The experimental results for Nusselt numbers agreed well with our available numerical results. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Heat Trans Asian Res, 28(4): 295–306, 1999     

Natural convection heat transfer of microemulsion phase-change-material slurry in rectangular cavities heated from below and cooled from above

An experimental study has been conducted in dealing with natural convection heat transfer characteristics of microemulsion slurry in rectangular enclosures. The microemulsion slurry used in the present experiment was composed of water, surfactant, and fine particles of phase-change-material (PCM). The PCM mass concentration of the microemulsion slurry was varied from a maximum 30 mass% to a diluted minimum 5 mass%, and the experiments have been done separately in three subdivided temperature ranges of the dispersed PCM particles in a solid phase, two phases (coexistence of solid and liquid) and a liquid phase. The results showed that the Nusselt number increased slightly with the PCM mass concentration for the slurry in solid phase. In the phase change temperature range, the Nusselt number increased with an increase in PCM mass concentration of the slurry at low Rayleigh numbers, while it decreased with increasing PCM mass concentration of the slurry at high Rayleigh numbers. There was not much difference in natural heat transfer characteristics of the PCM slurry with low PCM concentrations (<10 mass%), however, the difference was getting greater with increasing the PCM concentration, especially for the enclosure at a lower aspect ratio (width/height of the rectangular enclosure). The enclosure height was varied from 5.5 to 24.6 mm under a fixed width and depth of 120 mm. Hence, the experiments were performed for a wide range of modified Rayleigh number from 3 × 10² to 1.0 × 10⁷. The correlation generalized for the PCM slurry in a single phase was derived in the form of Nu=0.22(1−C₁C_me^−C₂AR)Ra^1/(3n+1), where C₁ and C₂ were the optimum fitting constants obtained by the least square method. While the PCM was in a phase changing region, the correlation could be expressed as Nu=0.22(1−C₁C_me^−C₂AR)Ra^1/(3n+1)Ste^−0.25, where the Ste was the modified Stefan number.     

Experimental investigation of mixed convection heat transfer in a rectangular channel with discrete heat sources at the top and at the bottom

Mixed convection heat transfer in a top and bottom heated rectangular channel with discrete heat sources has been investigated experimentally for air. The lower and upper surfaces of the channel were equipped with 8 × 4 flush-mounted heat sources subjected to uniform heat flux. Sidewalls, the lower and upper walls were insulated and adiabatic. The experimental study was made for an aspect ratio of AR = 6, Reynolds numbers 955 ≤ Re_Dh ≤ 2220 and modified Grashof numbers Gr* = 1.7 × 10⁷ to 6.7 × 10⁷. From experimental measurements, surface temperature and Nusselt number distributions of the discrete heat sources were obtained for different Grashof numbers. Furthermore, Nusselt number distributions were calculated for different Reynolds numbers. Results show that surface temperatures increase with increasing Grashof number. The row-averaged Nusselt numbers first decrease with the row number and then, due to the increase in the buoyancy affected secondary flow and the onset of instability, they show an increase towards the exit as a result of heat transfer enhancement.     

Effect of radiation and convection heat transfer on cooling performance of radiative panel

The radiative panel is an equipment combining the solar heating and nocturnal radiant cooling technology. This study conducted the thermal performance of radiative panels for both radiation and convection cooling. Using the cover test by the mirror polished aluminum plate, the net cooling capacity of radiative panel was tested. The net cooling capacity of the radiative panel and contribution degree of the radiation heat transfer and convection heat transfer to the net cooling capacity was computed using the simulation model, and the influences of the cloud, ambient temperature and inclination angle on the radiation cooling were discussed. From the experimental results, the net cooling capacity was 45–70 W/m² when the radiative panel wasn’t covered, and the net cooling capacity was 10–30 W/m² when the mirror polished aluminum plate existed on a clear night in February in Tianjin. From the simulation results, the net cooling capacity of the radiative panel was about 50–70 W/m², and the radiation cooling was about 45 W/m², being responsible for 64%–90% of the net cooling capacity. The temperature differences between radiative panel and environment were the main influencing factors for the radiation cooling capacity. With an increase of the temperature difference, the radiation cooling capacity increased, and when the variation 5 °C of the temperature difference, the radiation cooling capacity will increase about 10–20 W/m². When it was partly cloudy, the radiation cooling capacity was about 50 W/m² and the fall rate of the radiation cooling capacity was less than 24%. With an increase of the cloud, the radiation cooling will decrease significantly. When it was overcast, the radiative panel even absorbed heat around 45 W/m² from the environment. When the tilt angle of radiative panel was less than 30°, the fall rate of the radiation cooling capacity was less than 11.3%. When the tilt angle was greater than 30°, the radiation cooling decreased significantly. In the case of being placed vertically, the radiation cooling capacity reduced by 84.8%.     

Radiation-induced ignition of condensed fuels in a ceiling fire including effects of radiation blockage

Effects of thermal radiation blockage due to an absorbing-emitting layer formed below the ceiling on ignition of the floor materials are studied. The analysis employs a relatively simple but realistic model under one-dimensional and quasi-steady-state conditions. Calculated ignition delay times compare favorably with experimental data and temperature histories of the floor influenced by radiation blockage are obtained. Generally valid relationships between ignition delay times and radiative heat fluxes are obtained for typical polymer fuels such as PMMA and PS, and the applicability of the present analysis is discussed.